...but not a lot of cake.I almost totally agree with this here report on the state of boys and reading. Lipsyte is writing about (mostly) the high school end in his lament; I would say that much of the same applies to mid-grades as well. Though there's lots of material* here, I want to think about two quotes: one direct, the other indirect---snugged up together like Thing One and Thing Two, which I fear alas! alack!---they are:
Michael Cart, a past president of the Young Adult Library Services Association, agrees**.“We need more good works of realistic fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, on- or offline, that invite boys to reflect on what kinds of men they want to become,” he told me. “In a commercially driven publishing environment, the emphasis is currently on young women.”And then some. At the 2007 A.L.A. conference, a Harper executive said at least three-quarters of her target audience were girls, and they wanted to read about mean girls, gossip girls, frenemies and vampires.
So. In this commercially driven publishing environment, we are (directly) sad, very sad that boys are not being invited to reflect on what kinds of men they want to become. On the other hand, we don't seem to be particularly sad that the target audiences for all this commerce---girls---are (indirectly) invited to reflect on the kinds of women they want to become: mean girls, gossip girls, frenemies and vampires.
Ironic.
Lypsyte also points out that a lot of guy reads are superficial sword-and-space epics*** or sports novels with preachy moral messages****, but I think the point is clear:
If I have to be superficial to be published, I'd way WAY rather write about swords and sports than mean girls and vampires, any day.
And what the heck are frenemies? Sounds suspicious.
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* and a couple of potshots like this one: The current surge in children’s literature has been fueled by talented young female novelists fresh from M.F.A. programs who in earlier times would have been writing midlist adult fiction. Ouch.
**...that "the majority of adults involved in kids’ reading are women, boys might not see reading as a masculine activity.” (Jon Scieszka, as quoted in Lipsyte's article).
***and superheroes by the bucketful.
****the male equivalent of dating a vampire, apparently.
